HLF Laureate Portraits: Alan Kay

The Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation presents the HLF Laureate Portraits: Alan Kay; ACM A.M. Turing Award, 2003.

Interview recorded in 2016.

In this series, join us as we meet with the top mathematicians and computer scientists – recipients of the Abel Prize, the ACM A.M. Turing Award, the ACM Prize in Computing, the Fields Medal, the IMU Abacus Medal and the Nevanlinna Prize. Marc Pachter (Director Emeritus of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institute) sits down with the laureates to discuss their lives, their research, their careers and the circumstances that led to their awards. These interviews were produced for the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation by the Berlin photographer Peter Badge.

The opinions expressed in this video do not necessarily reflect the views of the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation or any other person or associated institution involved in the making and distribution of the video.

Background:
The Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation (HLFF) annually organizes the Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF), which is a networking conference for mathematicians and computer scientists from all over the world. The HLFF was established and is funded by the German foundation Klaus Tschira Stiftung (KTS), which promotes natural sciences, mathematics and computer science. The HLF is strongly supported by the award-granting institutions, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM: ACM A.M. Turing Award, ACM Prize in Computing), the International Mathematical Union (IMU: Fields Medal, IMU Abacus Medal, Nevanlinna Prize), and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (DNVA: Abel Prize). The Scientific Partners of the HLFF are the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS) and Heidelberg University.

More information on the Heidelberg Laureate Forum:

[upup]

I've listened to hours upon hours of Alan Kay talking, what can i say

[modestviking]

Thank you a lot for sharing this!!! For people being far away from quality people like Alan and surrounded by very different kind of people these interviews and thoughts of Alan Kay is like a fresh air and really enriching. Having possibility to listen smart people like here really makes a difference and .I am really grateful to you for your efforts to create this opportunity. Thank you very much.

[Frisenette]

Now that was interesting! Someone should force mr. Kay to write a biography or write it for him.

[AbaseenPodcast]

Please mention when this interview was taken, because the date of posting is only good on a century scale. This is really unfortunate that people managing the HLF youtube account do not have enough common sense to mention such a trivial but important detail.

[Bystroushaak]

52:59

Don't ask whether something is true or false, right or wrong, try to find out what's going on.

Try to get past to what our common sense is trying to make of the world, and try to find a way of modeling things that our brains were not set up to model by nature. That's what's powerful.

It has some of the things that are powerful about the printing press, about mathematics, and about science. But the level of reality that you can actually start probing, because you have a computer to helping you see .. it's like the world's greatest microscope and world's greatest telescope, but intellectually.